140 



THE INDIA RUBBER WORLD 



[February i, 1908. 



THE EDITOR'S BOOK TABLE. 



RECOLLECTIONS OF AX ILL-FATED EXPEDITION TO THE HEAD- 

 waters of the Madeira River in Brazil. By Neville B. Craig, in Cooper- 

 ation with members of the Madeira and Mamore Association. 

 Philadelphia and London: J. B. I.ippincott Co. 1907. [Cloth. 8vo. Pp 

 479 T maps and plates. Price. $4.] 



IT is conceded generallj' that the richest natural supplies of 

 rubber on the globe are to be found in the South Ameri- 

 can republic of Bolivia, the product of which to-day ranks 

 highest among the grades marketed as "Para" rubber. Bo- 

 livia, though larger than any country in Europe except 

 Russia, has no seaport and no natural outlet to any sea other 

 than the river Madeira, obstructed by a formidable series of 

 cataracts. The natural resources of South America, on the 

 whole, doubtless are equal to those of North America, and 

 of the southern countries none is richer than Bolivia. In 

 mineraJ resources none other of the southern republics is so 

 rich. But on account of the landlocked condition of the 

 country it is hardly less remote from the world's commercial 

 capitals than is the planet of Mars. 



The possibilities of the commercial development of Bolivia 

 by means of circumventing the cataracts of the Madeira were 

 recognized long ago by Colonel George Earl Church, an 

 American, than whom probably no one has or ever has had a 

 more intimate knowledge of the geography and economic 

 resources of South America. More than a century ago the 

 commercial advantages to a large section from the opening 

 of navigation down the Madeira via the Amazon to the 

 .•\tlantic had been pointed out, but progress was made slowly 

 in South America in those days, and it remained for Colonel 

 Church to make the first definite attempt to carry out such 

 an attempt, which was begun in 1870, when the National 

 Bolivian Navigation Co. was organized under an act of the 

 United States congress, with Colonel Church as president. 



This company was formed to acquire a concession granted 

 by the Bolivian government to Colonel Church to construct 

 a railway around the cataracts of the Madeira. Financial 

 obstacles were the first to be met, and the book before us 

 records the attempts to secure additional capital in England, 

 the prolonged litigation which grew up there in consequence 

 and the ultimate failure of the whole project. But the book 

 gives first place to the personal experiences of the engineers 

 and others who departed from the United States in all good 

 faith to undertake the construction of the Madeira railway, 

 on which not a little work was actually done before the 

 financial crash which gave a finale to the undertaking. 



The present book is written by one of the survivors of the 

 Madeira expedition, with the assistance of those of his col- 

 leagues who also survive, as an outgrowth of annual reunions 

 which they hold in Philadelphia. It ends with a reference to 

 a revival to Colonel Church's project, in pursuance of the 

 treaty whereby Brazil succeeded in having rescinded the con- 

 cession granted by Bolivia to Sir Martin Conway and his 

 associates, with the details of which I.nhi.v Rubber World 

 readers are familiar. If the terms of this treaty are carried 

 out, the rich rubber regions of Bolivia will be brought two 

 months nearer to New York, and the domain of such "rubber 

 kings" as Nicolas Suarez, on the upper Madeira, who was 

 sketched by Mr. Post in The India Rubber World [.\pril 

 I, 1905 — page 223], need no longer be regarded as an un- 

 known country to the world at large. 



The interest of this book, other than to those who are con- 

 cerned about the commercial possibilities involved in the 

 opening of Bolivia to communication with the outside world, 

 lies in its graphic descriptions of the rubber region tapped 

 by the Madeira, and the native population, together with 

 the hardships which white men must undergo in seeking to 

 engage in trade there. These hardships enable us to under- 

 stand the failures of so many companies largely capitalized 

 in England to exploit rubber in the Amazon country. The 



record of engineers crazed by tropical fevers and by starva- 

 tion no doubt is being repeated in the history of the force 

 now engaged, under an American contractor, in carrying out 

 the new Madeira-Mamore railway project. But when all is- 

 finished, as it inevitably will be, it will prove the first step in 

 making Bolivia and the adjacent Brazilian states as habitable 

 for white men as the Mississippi valley is to-day, after cen- 

 turies of determined effort. 



.•\lthough this book is put forth as a mere collection of 

 memoranda, with no claim to literary merit, we recall no 

 book relating to the country described that is more readable 

 or more informing. 



THE LAND OF TO-MORROW. A NEWSPAPER EXPLORATION UP' 

 the .\mazon and over the -■\ndes to the California of South .America. 

 By J. Orton Kerbey. New York: W. F. Brainerd. igo6. [Cloth. 

 i2mo. Pp. IX -+- 405. Price, $1.50.] 



M-'vjor Kerbey, some time United States consul at Para, 

 became interested in the sources of rubber, as his frequent 

 contributions at a later period to The India Rubber World 

 indicate. It was this that led him to go up the Amazon to- 

 ils sources and thence to the Pacific. The present volume is 

 a collection of newspaper letters written on a tour under- 

 taken at his own initiative and expense, and this is not in- 

 tended primarily to interest rubber men. 



Major Kerbey, however, is an entertaining writer, being 



first of all a close and careful observer and one who never 



loses his interest in rubber, so that his book on nearly every 



page throws sidelights upon the people of the rubber regions 



and the conditions of conducting the rubber traffic which one 



is not likely to find in books written by professional tourists. 



The volume contains interesting notes on Para and Manaos. 



and the lesser known centers of the rubber trade in Peru. 



The title of the book is suggested bj' the disposition of the 



people described never to do to-day what can be put off until 



to-morrow — a disposition which accounts for their lack of 



what in other countries is called "progress." 



THE CEYLON HANDBOOK AND DIRECTORY .\ND COMPENDIUM 

 of Useful Information for 1907-08. To Which is Prefixed a Statistical 

 Summary for the Colony and Review of the Planting Enterprise, up 

 to .August, 1907. Compiled and Edited by the Staff of the Ceylotu 

 Obserz'er, under the Direction of J. Ferguson, c. M. c. Colombo: A. M. 

 & J. Ferguson. 1907. [Cloth. 8vo. Pp. xLi -f- 1456. Price, £1.] 



This yearly publication, established in 1863, has grown 

 steadily in extent and completeness until the present volume 

 forms perhaps the best work of its kind ever produced in any 

 country. There is scarcely any head under which informa- 

 tion might be derived concerning Ceylon which is not cov- 

 ered in the volume under review. The editor regards the 

 rubber planting industry as the most interesting branch 

 dealt with in the returns in the present volume, the informa- 

 tion given relating to every estate in Ceylon on which rubber 

 has been planted. There is a complete directory of planting 

 companies, extent of planting, names and addresses of plant- 

 ers and much other data of interest. This year, for the first 

 time, the Handbook includes also information regarding 

 rubber estates in Malaya. 



KOLONIAL HANDELS-ADRESSBUCH. 1908 (j2 .T.VHRG.\NG). MIT 

 der Karte der Kolonien. Berlin: Kolonial-Wirtschaftlichen Komitee. 

 1908. [Paper. Large 8vo. Pp. 299. Price, 2.50 marks.] 



An admirable yearly work of reference for whoever is in- 

 terested in trade in the German colonies from any point of 

 view. The work likewise contains a directory of companies 

 having headquarters in Germany and engaged in trade in 

 other countries than the German colonies — in China, .Abys- 

 sinia, all over South .America, Central America, Palestine, 

 and so on. 



IN CURRENT PERIODIC.\LS. 



.\rbre a Caoutchouc dit "Nong-giot," dans le cercle de Cao-Bang (Ton- 

 kin). Une Nouvelle Liane a Caoutchouc du genre Bousigonia. By Ph. 

 Eberhart. — Butlctin Economique, Hanoni. X.66 (.Aug. '06). Pp. 703-708. 



Anzapfungsversuche an Kautschukbaumen im Ndvdlichen Kustengebiete 

 Kameruiis. [Results of tapping Ficits. Kickxia and Hevca.} By Professor 

 A. Webcrbauer. — Der Tropcnplanzcr. Berlin. XI-l2(Dec- '07). Pp. 823-842. 



Neue Manihot-\TiGn und ihre Bedeutung. [Newly described species of 

 "manicoba" rubber trees.] — Der Tropcnpiianser, Berlin. XI-12 (Dec. '07). 

 I'p. 861-869. 



